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Russia declares Navalny’s groups ‘extremist’ in ongoing crackdown -lawyers

epa09164791 Municipal workers paint over a graffiti depicting jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny with wordings reading, 'The hero of the new age', in St. Petersburg, Russia, 28 April 2021. Navalny is currently being held at a prison camp northeast of Moscow, sentenced to imprisonment at the penal camp in early February 2021 for violating parole requirements related to an earlier suspended sentence over 2014 embezzlement charges. EPA-EFE/ANATOLY MALTSEV

MOSCOW, June 9 (Reuters) - A Russian court on Wednesday approved a request by prosecutors to declare organisations linked to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny "extremist" in a move that outlaws the groups, his lawyers said on social media.

The ruling, which takes effect immediately, effectively bars the groups’ members from running in a parliamentary election this year.

Navalny, who is serving a 2-1/2-year jail sentence on charges he says are trumped up, has denied extremism allegations, casting them as an attempt to stamp out opposition to the ruling United Russia party ahead of the parliamentary vote in September. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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  • Andy Miles says:

    The SA Government has more sympathy and alignment with the BRICS nations. The two major players are China and Russia. Russia is persecuting Navalny and his supporters, and China is shutting down Hong Kong activists that want to exercise democratic rights. Those supporting the ANC best be carful what they wish for, and the rest of us best be prepared to up the push back to stop the erosion of freedoms as the ANC moves towards more communism ideology/policy and more control by the state. You never knew what you had until its gone!

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